CECILIA profile picture

CECILIA

Welcome to the official Cecilia MySpace site

About Me

Cecilia was born the daughter of respected rock musician Bjarne Knutsen in Haugesund, Norway and grew up in a small village outside the town called Førde. From a very early age she showed a talent for performing - her mother taking her to ballroom dancing classes from when she was four, ballet classes and gymnastics from when she was six and at the age of eight baton twirling, a sport that has followed her throughout her life. In the same year Cecilia started violin classes, at nine it was piano lessons...but nothing was as exciting to her as singing and performing in front of an audience. She competed in her first talent show when she was eight (2nd place) and starred in several school plays throughout her school years.When Cecilia was 17 she went to Australia as an exchange student. This year changed her life in many ways. Attending Willoughby Girls High School in Sydney - a centre of excellence in the creative arts - proved to be a year for her to indulge in all the subjects she couldn't do at her school in Norway. She studied music, very quickly obtaining the lead in the high school rock eisteddfod "It don't mean a Thing, if it ain't got that Swing" based on Duke Ellington's music...as the Duke naturally. This was also an important period for her twirling wise with her acceptance into what was the best team in Australia at that time. Team Bexley went on to win most competitions that year, giving Cecilia the perfect vehicle to further develop her growing dancing, choreography and stagecraft skills. But a phone call on Christmas Eve of that year was to overshadow everything she had achieved. Her father had passed away unexpectedly under tragic circumstances. Alone on the other side of the world in a strange country, Cecilia took solace in her music.After Australia it was back to Norway, where she starred in and choreographed cabaret.Next Cecilia went to Oslo to study English at Oslo College. Although not a very "musical" year, she enjoyed it, and decided to move to Denmark to continue her studies the following year. The year in Denmark proved to be somewhat of a bad idea. She realised more and more that she was on the wrong track, and went out as much as she could to listen to bands. Before long she was singing with local acts. On one of these nights an Australian was in the audience and could not believe what he was hearing. He went over to her after her performance and they got talking. He turned out to be a musician on tour in Europe, and had finished early that night ... Cecilia finished her year in Denmark, completing her degree in Bergen, Norway. Next stop was Australia to visit her host family from her exchange year and to meet up with Richard Davis, the Australian she met in Denmark a couple of years before. They hit it off immediately, and Richard decided to move to Europe full time so that they could continue working together. They found a name; R'JAC, and started hitting the pubs and clubs for gigs. After a short while R'JAC was booked out with gigs all over Norway. After a few years in Norway and short yearly tours to Germany, Denmark and Holland they decided to move south on a more permanent basis to "conquer" Europe. So far it's proved to be successful with several producers already approaching Cecilia to work with them.A great step forward in Cecilia’s carreer was the November day in 2006 when she made it to Helsinki to audition for one of her favourite bands, Nightwish, as the new lead singer. Although not making it into the band, she looks back at 4 amazing days in the Finnish capital where the band, and epecially manager Ewo Pohjola, looked after Cecilia in the best way possible, making her feel comfortable and relaxed in the studio, as well as in the time off. Nightwish has also later recommended Cecilia to other bands which has made a huge impact on her and helped getting Cecilia recognised in the European metal scene.In 2008 Cecilia will be recording her first full length album with guitarist Richard Davis, release date will be announced later in the year.Her voice has been described as having the power of Skin's, the soul of Aretha Franklin's, the uniqueness of Janis Joplin's and the roar rockin' energy of Melissa Etheridge's. To quote one witness - "You won't find anything like it, maybe ever" ...

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/19/2008
Band Website: ceciliaonline.com
Band Members: Cecilia - Lead vocals, occasionally keys, guitar and bass.RJ Davis - Lead guitar and vocals - drums and bass on recordings.Rythm section varies from tour to tour
Influences: Vocals: Freddie Mercury-my hero!, Janis Joplin, Melissa Etheridge, Skin, Bruce Dickinson, Robert Plant, Peter Gabriel, Anouk, Alanis Morissette, Tina Turner (the early years), Beth Hart, Jimmy Barnes.Bands: QUEEN!, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Faith No More, Black Crowes, Guns 'n' Roses The Beatles, Cold Chisel, Deep Purple, Dum Dum Boys, Nightwish, The Who, Skunk Anansie.
Sounds Like: Cecilia's voice has been described as having the power of Skin's, the soul of Aretha Franklin's, the uniqueness of Janis Joplin's and the roar rockin' energy of Melissa Etheridge's. To quote one witness - "You won't find anything like it, maybe ever" ...
Record Label: Unsigned
Type of Label: None

My Blog

New Fan-website

Hi everyone.This blog is to let you know that R'JAC has a brand new fan-site:www.r-jac-fanatics.comIt's a great new website for R'JAC's fans and contains a few things that you can not find on R'JAC's ...
Posted by CECILIA on Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:58:00 PST

THANK YOU!!!

This short message goes out to everyone who showed up at our gigs this weekend to join in on my birthday celebrations. I can't believe I have so many people around me who care! I just want to tha...
Posted by CECILIA on Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:08:00 PST

It’s my birthday...

That's right!It's my birthday on Saturday, and it will be a big one. 3 days long. Last year was a biggy, but due to things out of everyone's control I ended up spending my birthday saying goodbye...
Posted by CECILIA on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:37:00 PST

I’m not dead...

Hi guys.Just a quickie to let those who care know that I'm getting better every day, and will be back on stage again tonight after nearly two weeks in bed recovering from surgery in my stomach. S...
Posted by CECILIA on Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:29:00 PST

Kirwans gigs cancelled!

Hi everyone.A lot of bad news this month...The last piece of unwanted information came last night from Kirwan's Irish Pub in Mönchengladbach. Due to financial restrictions, they have to cancel ou...
Posted by CECILIA on Thu, 29 May 2008 04:40:00 PST

Spain cancelled!

Hi guys.Just a little update. As you can see from the calendar most of July is free of gigs. That's because we've been waiting for our Spain promotor to get back to us with the final dates/venues for ...
Posted by CECILIA on Tue, 20 May 2008 02:29:00 PST

Gigs, songwriting, recording and stuff....

Hi guys.This is just a quickie to say that I'm not dead although my blogging has been lame for the past 3 weeks. I'm in the middle of recording our own songs, recording a song for someo...
Posted by CECILIA on Mon, 19 May 2008 03:24:00 PST

Another week gone.

So, yet another week is over. We've done two gigs since my last blog. One in Mönchengladbach, Germany and one in Beek, The Netherlands. They were both good, except that last night in NL I go...
Posted by CECILIA on Sun, 04 May 2008 03:27:00 PST

Sunday Morning Blues...

So it's Sunday again.I'm a little hungover...I don't make a habit of drinking when I'm playing. In fact, I have NEVER even had as much as one drink before a show. Two reasons: A. My Dad drank eno...
Posted by CECILIA on Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:22:00 PST

Howdy folks!

Ok, so I'm back for a little update.Have had a very busy and eventful week:)Started off last Monday by going to Strasbourg, France, to see one last show with Nightwish and their excelle...
Posted by CECILIA on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:11:00 PST